


Under pressure

by uswnttrash



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 08:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6796792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uswnttrash/pseuds/uswnttrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christen reaches out to Tobin following the red card™ incident.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under pressure

**Author's Note:**

> i'm still very emotional about all this

It was almost as if every single post-game interview she did ended up leaving her with a sickening feeling. One of the first instances came when she received the text about Carli’s injury mid-interview and the next time around was when she had to endure listening to her coach after he spent a majority of his time telling the team what he really felt about them. 

This time around was something she never could have expected. She was riding the high of scoring the game winning goal and just trying her best to make everything short and sweet when she felt her phone buzz on the table. 

“Cool.” She said with a smile as her interview ended and she was up out of her seat immediately. She reached for her phone and saw that she had received over 10 texts from different people. Those people included Ashlyn, Alex, one of her sisters, Tobin’s sister, Allie, Meghan and Ali. 

All of the messages ranged from ‘is Tobin okay?’ to ‘did you see what happened yet?’ and everywhere in between. Christen’s mind was going into overdrive. Portland’s game started around the same time as Chicago’s but Christen knew that Washington probably started the lineup announcements and anthems before 7pm which meant their game started on time as opposed to hers. 

Julie had approached her shortly after the press time was over and she could see immediately that something was wrong. “What’s going on? Did they say something to you back there?” In any other moment, Christen would have laughed at Julie being her protective self but she couldn’t even answer her. 

She just focused on checking any and every page she could to see what was going on. She finally found the video of the first yellow card. It was questionable but still the right call at the end of the day. It took a few more moments before she saw the video of the second yellow. 

Julie had been watched as well and as soon as Tobin slammed the ball down, she made a noise that kind of brought Christen back to reality. “I just…” She started shaking her head a little. “That’s not like her at all.”

Julie wrapped her arm around Christen and started to lead her away from everyone who was around. “Everyone has an off game, Chris. I’m sure it’s nothing. You know how passionate Tobin is. It must have just been a frustrating game.”

“You know how she is, too, Jules. She doesn’t get carded twice. She’s smarter than that.” Christen shook her head slowly. She was worried and what made things worse was that she hadn’t gotten a text from Tobin yet. 

“Hey…” Julie pulled her in closer as they started to make their way to the bus. “Let’s just get back to the hotel. I’ll make sure no one bothers you and you can call her, okay?” 

It wasn’t okay but it was the only thing Christen could really do right now. She just stayed on autopilot until they were back at the hotel. People on the team knew now what was going on so they didn’t need Julie to tell them to back off. 

As soon as they got to the hotel, Christen bolted to her room and shut the door behind her. She sat down on her bed and took in a deep breath. There was a moment where she thought that maybe not calling might be the best idea. She could give Tobin some time to breath but there was a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that caused her to hit the call button.

It must have been one or two rings away from voicemail before Tobin actually picked up. There was nothing but a soft sigh on the other end of the line. 

“Hi….” Christen started hesitantly. 

Tobin hadn’t been expecting the call. She expected a text maybe but that’s probably because it was what she was used to whenever Shirley tried to reach out to her like this. This was different though. Christen, of course, was different. 

“Hi...” Tobin mumbled back as she sat back in her seat on the balcony of her hotel room. Allie, Lindsey, Meghan and even Ali and a few others were in the room together but they hadn’t bothered to reach out to Tobin for almost an hour. 

“I don’t…” Christen started and she closed her eyes tightly as she had to stop herself. She had no idea how to avoid this conversation or how to even bring it up. “Tobin.”

“Chris, please…” Tobin ran a hand over her face. “I know, okay? You don’t have to say anything. It was stupid. I just…”

“Hey, you don’t have to explain yourself, babe. I….” She tried to stop herself from getting too emotional over something that was probably nothing. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.” Of course, she knew that wasn’t going to suffice so she continued and decided to be honest. “The game was frustrating and I don’t know if I’m cut out for this captain thing. I thought I could handle the responsibilities but I can’t.”

“Don’t say that, okay? You can handle this, Tobin. You have been handling it even on the National Team.” She said firmly. “You've always been someone people have looked up to and you've been a leader without even realizing it. And I know there’s a lot of pressure that comes with being a captain but I also know that you deserve to be one and you deserve to have all the responsibilities and recognition, baby.”

Tobin stayed silent for a few moments as she let the words sink in. “I feel like an idiot, Christen.” She let out mixed with a deep breath. “Lauren and Amy and a bunch of other people have texted me and Allie and some of the team are in the room and I just can’t face them. I feel like I let them all down.”

“They are worried about you, Tobin. That’s it. I know that much because they were texting me immediately to see if you were okay.” 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t ask them to do that. I know you were probably really excited after your win and your amazing goal. You shouldn’t have had to deal with my mess.”

“Any mess of yours is mine, too. You should know that by now.” Despite the circumstances, a small smile formed on both of their lips when the words came out. “No one’s mad, Tobin. Well, no maybe the people who had you in their fantasy leagues are but other than that, no one else is. There’s nothing you can do about it now so let’s change the subject and we’ll talk until everyone leaves your room for the night.”

“Okay.” Tobin wanted to say a million different things but instead, she just settled on the only thing that kept popping into her mind. “I really miss you, Christen.”

“I know. I miss you, too. I wish I was there with you…” This hadn’t been the first time she had said that this week. She was supposed to meet the Heath’s down South for Jeff’s graduation but her best friend from home ended up surprising her in Chicago. 

“You know, I’m not really doing anything next weekend now and I’m not too far away from both Chicago and Boston…” 

A wide smile formed on Christen’s lips. “Yeah? Well, how funny is that. I mean I’m a little busy on Friday but other than that, I might be completely free for the player of the month.”

“I can be on a flight tomorrow. I’ll have to fly to Seattle though at the end of the week because I want to still support the team but so a few days is better than nothing.”

“It definitely is…” 

The two ended up talking for a little bit more as Christen got her laptop out to book Tobin a flight for the next morning since she was still avoiding going back into her room. Though at this point, the crowd inside had lessened and was down to just Allie, Lindsey and Meghan now. 

By this time, Julie had come back into the hotel room and she was a bit surprised to see that Christen was still on the phone. The smile on her face as she mouthed ‘thank you’ to her let Julie know that everything was okay. 

It wasn’t long before the conversation hit an ending point since it was clear that both women were tired. Tobin had to be up early for her flight and now so did Christen in order to pick her up. 

They ended the call with ‘I love you’s’ and Christen slipped in a joke about the red card just as she hung up. 

Tobin slid the door to the balcony open and was met with a curious look from Allie who was still up. 

“So…” Allie started before Tobin cut her off. 

“I’m sorry.” She fell onto her bed and stayed silent for a few moments. “I’m going to see Christen in the morning.” 

This caused Allie to throw a pillow over at Tobin. “My god, Tobin. Was all of that tonight because you haven’t had sex in a month?”

Tobin caught the pillow and threw it back at her. “No, no. Shut up. I said I was sorry.”

“Sorry won’t cut it. I know the truth now and it’s no excuse.” She continued to tease her knowing how much it was getting to Tobin. “I’ll personally fly Christen out before games if it means your stupid self won’t go crazy like that on the pitch again.” She joked and it caused Tobin to laugh, too. The two ended up talking a little more and Tobin explained some things but Allie never pushed her too much. She simply just said that she was always there for her before adding in that they should sleep so they both don’t look like death when they see their partners early the next day. 

Tobin fell asleep feeling like the world wasn’t ending which had been running through her mind a few hours before. She could handle this pressure and anything else life threw at her because she knew at the end of the day Christen was a phone call or flight away and would always make things better.


End file.
